- Published: 11 November 2025
- ISBN: 9780241730096
- Imprint: Penguin Classics
- Format: Trade Paperback
- Pages: 288
- RRP: $26.99
Lowest Common Denominator

















- Published: 11 November 2025
- ISBN: 9780241730096
- Imprint: Penguin Classics
- Format: Trade Paperback
- Pages: 288
- RRP: $26.99
Long an object of study in Finland, Saisio’s work is beginning to gain more global recognition now, cementing her place in the canon of autofiction that also includes the Nordic writers Karl Ove Knausgaard and Tove Ditlevsen
Niina Pollari, Los Angeles Review of Books
Like Annie Ernaux but funny
Irène Bluche, rbbKultur
This is both family history and contemporary political history, sexual self-discovery and artist biography… moving and clever, funny and beautiful
NZZ am Sonntag, Best Books of the Century
Playful and profound, Lowest Common Denominator offers a captivating glimpse into twentieth-century Finland through the eyes of a charismatic child narrator. I loved it
Fiona Mozley
Saisio gives us a humorous and empathetic account of the challenge of coming to terms with the world we are born into. It’s a world animated by the distances between generations, shimmering with the individuality of parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Sensual, curious, imaginative and funny, Saisio reminds us that being someone’s child can be a deeply queer experience
Anna Poletti
If you love Deborah Levy, you'll adore Pirkko Saisio
Le Masque et la plume